Eastwood Academy

Chapter 15: Pressure Cooker

When my alarm clock goes off, it takes all my willpower not to hit snooze and fall back asleep. Thanks to last night's excursion, Jessica and I got back around 3 a.m. I didn't sleep well. I tossed and turned, half asleep, as I relived my encounter with River over and over again in a hazy dreamlike state.

I clean and re-bandage my tattoo. Since the tattoo is on my upper arm, I don't have to do much to hide it other than putting on a long sleeve shirt. I wince when I see my reflection in the mirror. Dark, pronounced circles have appeared under my eyes. I usually prefer to go makeup free, but today I decide to use concealer under my eyes.

Jessica and I head over to the campus coffee shop. A few people shoot us incredulous stares and I realize we probably look like walking zombies. Neither of us say much until the caffeine hits our systems.

"Last night was insane," I say. We're sitting on a bench outside the coffee shop. The weather is perfect, and the sunlight feels nice on my face.

"Yeah, tell me about it. I can't believe Tyler would pull something like that, Jessica says. I don't know him well enough to have an opinion, but since River is involved, I can't say I'm shocked.

"Do you think Tyler and River knew what Beth was going to dare me to do?" I ask.

"Don't know. Before yesterday, I would have said there's no way Tyler would ever be involved in something like that, but I guess I don't know him as well as I thought I did," she says, annoyance creeping into her voice.

I take another sip of my coffee, hoping to wash away the feelings of fatigue. Jessica does the same and then turns to me with a curious expression.

"What did River want last night?" she asks. "Gavin said he was pretty awful to you again after the committee meeting yesterday."

"He was after the meeting, but last night he was really nice to me. He told me to get a tattoo that's meaningful to me. I have no idea why he'd care. I'm sure he'll be back to his usual rude self today," I say. Then I realized that today is Tuesday and since we have a block schedule and the next meeting isn't until Thursday, I won't see River today. I frown at the thought. After our last exchange, I'm hopeful again that maybe we can get along.

Because I know I won't see River at all today, all my classes seem to drag. To make matters worse, I never fully wake up either. I half sleep through the lectures and have to ask a couple of fellow students to borrow their notes.

As I step out of the elevator that afternoon after classes are done, and into the hallway leading to my room, I catch the sound of raised voices. They get louder as I walk towards them, causing me to hasten my pace. Up ahead, I see a group of people; in the middle of them are two girls who appear to be in a heated argument. One is a petite girl with short blonde hair and the other is dark haired and considerably taller than her. She has to lean down to shout in the other one's face. After a moment of looking at them, I realize that I recognize both of them. The blonde is named Gabby something, and the brunette is Elena Shaw.

I've seen both of them with River. Carly, who seems to know everything that goes on in this school, told me a few days ago that Elena and River hooked up at a party recently. And he's been all over Gabby, too. I can see now that she's the one I saw him with last night before I snuck out with Jessica. As I continue toward them I have a feeling that I know what started this fight. Sure enough, I make out River's name a few seconds later. He apparently gets more ass than a public toilet seat. I also heard that during tryouts for the basketball team, Gabby did very well, and Elena didn't, and that long before River, these two had it out for each other.

"What the fuck Gabby? First you hook up with a guy I've already hooked up with, and now you want my spot on the basketball team? Are you fucking kidding me?" Elena screams.